Nintendo shares hit 8-year high as cult title Monster Hunter is announced for Switch

Nintendo shares hit 8-year high as cult title Monster Hunter is announced for Switch

Nintendo is unleasing a monster title on the Switch — quite literally — after Capcom revealed plans to bring its Monster Hunter franchise to the console with the upcoming Monster Hunter XX title. (That’s “double cross” not “XX,” by the way.)

While it might not be mainstream in the West, Monster Hunter is a huge franchise in Japan.

Where do we start? Past games in the series have helped Nintendo sell millions of PSPs, millions of 3DSes and literally gotten top marks from the critics. The original game graced the PlayStation 2 in 2004, and newer additions have landed on the PS3, PS Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360 not to mention Windows and iOS. XX was actually first released for the 3DS in March and there’s plenty of anticipation for the Switch version.

Today’s reveal is a big deal for gamers, but equally so for Nintendo the business. The firm’s share price jumped over five percent on the news. Today alone, Nintendo added $2.2 billion to its market cap as its share price reached its highest since October 2008.

There’s no word for now on when Monster Hunter XX will land on Switch. More information has been teased for Saturday — which is also the date of this year’s Monster Hunter Championship — so diehards won’t have to wait too long.